From Maggie Gyllenhaal (the Academy Award-nominated writer and director of The Lost Daughter, who many of you will likely also remember from The Dark Knight) comes The Bride!, a bold, iconoclastic take on one of the world's most compelling stories.
Starring Academy Award nominee Jessie Buckley (Men, Wicked Little Letters) and Academy Award winner Christian Bale (The Dark Knight Trilogy, Thor: Love and Thunder), the first trailer and posters have been released today, finally pulling back the curtain on Bale's take on Frankenstein.
In the movie, a lonely Frankenstein (Bale) travels to 1930s Chicago to ask groundbreaking scientist Dr Euphronious (Annette Bening) to create a companion for him. The two revive a murdered young woman, and The Bride (Buckley) is born. What ensues is beyond what either of them imagined: Murder! Possession! A wild and radical cultural movement! And outlaw lovers in a wild and combustible romance!
The Bride! looks suitably weird and has a classic horror feel (albeit with a contemporary twist), so this should be well worth checking out when it opens in theaters next Spring. Buckley's take on the title character also looks every bit as compelling as what Bale is delivering in this preview.
The movie stars Buckley, Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, with Bening, Academy Award nominee Jake Gyllenhaal, and Oscar winner Penélope Cruz. Maggie Gyllenhaal directs from her own screenplay and produces alongside Oscar nominee Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Talia Kleinhendler and Osnat Handelsman Keren. The executive producers are Carla Raij, David Webb and Courtney Kivowitz.
Gyllenhaal is supported behind the camera by a team of award-winning film artisans, including director of photography Lawrence Sher, production designer Karen Murphy, editor Dylan Tichenor, music supervisor Randall Poster, composer Hildur Gudnadóttir and costume designer Sandy Powell.
Talking at CinemaCon earlier this year, Gyllenhaal said, "I was looking for something pop and big, and I wanted it to be radical at the same time. I didn’t quite know what I wanted it to be. This kind of ask that Frankenstein has, 'I’ll just take a bride'...and what happens when that Bride comes back is beyond his wildest imagination and doesn’t fit into the box he had for her."
"I think that all of us have a little aspect of something monstrous in us," the actor and filmmaker continued. "The monsters in our movie do monstrous things, but they’re also our heroes."
The Bride! arrives in theaters on March 6, 2026. Check out the trailer and posters below (via FearHQ.com).